My PC and monitor were working normally yesterday, but today the monitor turns black almost immediately. When I power-cycle the monitor, the desktop appears briefly and then disappears again. The HDMI cable is connected securely, and I also tried a VGA cable with the same result. I'm not very experienced with PC troubleshooting. When the screen goes black, the monitor's own menu seems unavailable while HDMI is connected, although the menu works after disconnecting the cable.
1 Answer
Because the desktop appears briefly and the same thing happens over both HDMI and VGA, the monitor is the most likely problem. Try shining your phone’s flashlight directly at the screen after it goes black. If you can barely see the desktop, the backlight may have failed. Also press the monitor’s menu button while the screen is black. If the menu disappears too, the monitor may be shutting down or failing internally. The best confirmation would be connecting the PC to a TV or another monitor, but based on your symptoms, the monitor is more suspicious than the cables or PC.
I tried the flashlight and couldn’t see anything, so it seems completely off rather than just dim. The monitor menu only works when HDMI is unplugged; while it’s connected and the screen goes black, I can’t bring the menu up. I don’t currently have another monitor available for testing.